Finborough Hall, Suffolk, Heirloom no. 2 (from an inscription on the stretcher);
Sir Clavering Fison, Sutton Hall, Sutton, Suffolk, by whom thought to have been purchased from Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, in the 1930s;
Thence by descent to Mrs. Arnoud Waller-Fison;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 13 December 1996, lot 79;
With Richard Green Fine Paintings, London;
From whom acquired by the present owner in 1997.

F. Montecuccoli degli Erri and F. Pedrocco, Michele Marieschi:  La vita, l'ambiente, l'opera, Milan 1999, p. 266, no. 47, reproduced. 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been recently restored. The canvas has been lined. The paint layer is stable and well varnished. Under ultraviolet light the varnish is such that one is not able to detect any retouches. Under close examination with the naked eye the buildings, the canvas and all of the elements here are well preserved. To the same degree one can be fairly encouraging about the lower sky. It is possible that there are restorations in the upper sky mainly above the clouds but the condition is clearly very good and the work should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The present work was mostly unknown to scholars prior to its appearance on the London art market in 1996.  It depicts, in panoramic fashion, one of the most famous and picturesque views in Venice.  From left to right, Marieschi has portrayed the library, designed in 1537 by Jacopo Sansovino, with the Campanile rising dramatically above it; the columns of Saints Theodore and Mark; the Doge's Palace; the Prisons of San Marco and the Gothic Palazzo Dandolo, now the Hotel Danieli.  In the foreground, the waters of the bacino are busy, as gondolas, barges and other vessels go about their daily tasks. 

Marieschi has utilized a complex perspectival recession and luminous light effects to achieve the balance evident in the present painting.  The shimmering, pinkish reflection of the Doge's Palace in the waters of bacino is masterfully portrayed, imbuing the scene with a momentary, fleeting feel.  Scholars typically date this work to a period between 1735 and 1739.  In his monograph on the artist, Federico Montecuccoli favors the earlier date of 1735-36 based on his reading of the light effects and Marieschi's way of handling the paint (see Literature), while in private correspondence dated 14 January 1997, Dario Succi favors the later date of circa 1738-39, when Marieschi's style had already reached its maturity.  Either dating makes this one of the earliest versions of this composition by Marieschi, with such well-known versions as the canvas in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Montecuccoli no. 186) and the work in the Gemäldegalerie, Potsdam (formerly in Charlottenburg Castle, Berlin) (Montecuccoli no. 92) both dated to circa 1740.

A similar view, taken from a slightly different perspective and with different staffage in the foreground, was sold in these rooms on 3 June 2010, lot 87.  Thought to have been painted by Marieschi's pupil, Francesco Albotto, the work reveals both the close affinity between master and pupil and the ongoing tradition of Venetian veduta painting.